I'm anal to the point of being a PITA when it comes to firearm safety. This is why!!

I'm anal to the point of being a PITA when it comes to firearm safety. This is why!!

This is a discussion on I'm anal to the point of being a PITA when it comes to firearm safety. This is why!! within the Basic Gun Handling & Safety forums, part of the General Firearm Discussion category; This morning while doing work I loaded up my browser which has a homepage of ABCNews.com...Because I like ABCNews.com's formatting.
Then among their top five ...

I'm anal to the point of being a PITA when it comes to firearm safety. This is why!!

This morning while doing work I loaded up my browser which has a homepage of ABCNews.com...Because I like ABCNews.com's formatting.

Then among their top five front page storys was this item which got me so fired up I had to just bookmark the page and close the tab thinking I'd come back to it tonight to finish reading.

This is a very atypical result to what is sadly a quite typical story among gun owners today and yesterday.
This story is why when I tell people IRL to lock up their guns and advise my own students to lock up their guns and repeat same online among gunfu forums to LOCK UP YOUR GUNS!!...That I won't back down from that position.

If it's not on your person or you are not in the room with direct control of the gun, lock it up!
Also do not store guns loaded. Duh!
As well do not touch guns nor handle them if you have not been authorized to do so by the guns owner. If you happen to find a gun or see one in a corner, do not touch it. Just leave it there. You don't touch it and nobody gets hurt!

If you follow these rules then you don't have to be smart or able enough to know and recall the three basic rules of firearm safety!

~~~

As featured at ABCNews.com:

Blind Love: Girl Shot in Face Fought Back

Robbed of Sight, Teen Took Hold of Her Future
Years After Shotgun Accident, Chrissy Steltz Fell in Love and Began to Raise a Son

By ASHLEIGH BANFIELD and ALISON LYNN
April 22, 2010

In her dreams, Chrissy Steltz imagines a world that she can no longer see.

"When I go to bed every night ... my dreams are fully sighted. I still see the sky. I still see … you know, the ocean..."

She sees her 8-month-old son, Geoffrey.

"I see his chubby cheeks and his gorgeous eyes and his perfect little lips," said Steltz.

And she can even see herself -- without the sleeping mask she now wears to cover her injuries.

"The oddest of dreams is I'll pull off my sleep-shade and I'll look just like I did when I was 16," she said. "And I'll throw the sleep-shade on the ground and walk off."

Watch the full story Friday on "20/20" at 10 p.m. ET

It's been 11 years since a shotgun blast robbed Steltz, now 27, of her sight, and, extraordinarily, most of her face.

"The only sense -- to my knowledge -- that I have that wasn't affected at all is my sense of touch," said Steltz. "I have no smell. I have no sight. And I have a little taste." She sometimes has difficulty hearing.

In 1999, Steltz was a popular high-school sophomore hanging out with friends at her apartment in Portland, Ore.

"It's spring break," Steltz recounted. "We're all, you know, doing what teenagers shouldn't be, you know, drinking. And I went into the back room and offered them orange juice, and I saw one of my friends with the shotgun.

"My words were, 'Put that down before you kill somebody.'

"And he told me, 'It's not loaded.' Yep. And from that moment is when my life changed."

Blind Love: 'An Injury Nobody Survives'

Steltz was shot, accidently, at point-blank range, a mere five feet from the teenage boy who was fooling around with a 12-gauge shotgun.

Her boyfriend at the time, Will O'Brien, arrived minutes after the shooting.

"I don't know if you have ever seen like a wounded animal trying to get up?" O'Brien said. "That's what I saw. I saw an injury that nobody survives, except somebody really strong. And she was trying to get up."

Steltz was rushed to the hospital, where surgeons desperately fought to save her life but quickly realized they could not save her face.

"The blast itself removed the contents of her left eye socket, removed her nose and the supporting mid-facial structures and damaged her right eye to the extent that she lost vision," said Dr. Eric Dierks, a surgeon who has operated on Steltz many times.

"I've not seen anything quite so severe where the patient lived."

Blind Love: 'I Thought I'd Fallen Asleep'

Steltz endured more than a dozen surgeries to rebuild her ravaged face.

"Every day was a struggle, every day," said O'Brien. "We didn't know whether she was going to live the day."

For six weeks, Steltz's friends and family waited anxiously as she lay in a drug-induced coma.

"They were telling me before she woke up that they didn't know the extent of the brain damage," said O'Brien. "She could wake up a vegetable. There is just no telling until she comes out."

Steltz remembers regaining consciousness.

"The first thing I remember is waking up in a hospital and asking if we were there yet," she said. "In my mind, mentally, I was on a trip to the beach with my family. I thought I'd fallen asleep in the back seat of the car."

Her boyfriend broke the news to her.

"His comment to me was, 'Do you know where you are? Do you see anything?'" said Steltz. "And that's when I realized, 'No. I don't see anything. Why don't I see anything?'"

O'Brien recalled what he told her: "She wasn't ever going to see again. Or smell. And that she didn't have a nose. She didn't have eyes. That they were gone. But you are beautiful."

Steltz said she felt she had a choice.

"When I finally knew what had happened to me and that I had lost my sight and that it would never be coming back," said Steltz, "I knew I could sit back and have a pity party, or I could figure out what to do and go about doing it, and that's exactly what I did."

It would be a long road to recovery, as Steltz learned day by day how to live as a blind person. She learned to read Braille, to use a cane and she learned other life skills.

"Losing my sight did in some ways take certain independence from me," Steltz said. "However, I have tried learning new methods, like learning to cook. I couldn't cook when I could see, at all … and now I cook every day."

Intent on resuming her former life, Steltz went back to her old high school, attended the prom and even graduated with her class. "I started back as soon as I could my junior year," she said.

Not only that -- she graduated with straight "A"s. But how?

"You know, it's part of who I am," she said.

Visit abcnews.com Friday for Part 2 of Chrissy Steltz's story -- including her plans to remake her face.

So if I come off like jerk in relation to this topic and I jump on your **** about wanting to leave shotguns behind doors and you come up with that when I was a youngin' we jus knew and wuz told and we listened...Don't be surprised if I don't buy it and say great for you it worked out back in the day.
Now in the 21st century do the right thing and act right. It ain't hard.

WoW seems biased and anti-gun.....JMO, Teenage boy if he is her age he would have been 16....old enough to drive and do that recklessly and kill people with a Vehicle..He should have been charged...i can see if maybe he was 8 or 9 years old..Remember it is not the guns fault.....or the LOADED guns fault. Teenagers drive a loaded weapon every day.....ban cars.

You may not like guns. You may choose not to own one. That is your right.
You might not believe in God. That is your choice.
However, if someone breaks into your home at 3AM the first two things you are going to do are:
1) Call someone with a gun.
2)Pray they get there in time." - A wise man

The shotgun was found by a party guest of her own as in her own apartment.
It was her gun...Stored unlocked and loaded or unlocked with shells near by also unlocked.

There is no anti-gun nor bias in this story.
It's a telling by the girl herself of the facts of what happened to her...The rest being how she has been working to reclaim some semblance of a life.

This is not about teenagers either.
The persons could have been any age, and past event storys of same have been just that from little kids to senior citizens.
Age and automobiles have zero to do with the story here and the lesson to be learned.

You may not like guns. You may choose not to own one. That is your right.
You might not believe in God. That is your choice.
However, if someone breaks into your home at 3AM the first two things you are going to do are:
1) Call someone with a gun.
2)Pray they get there in time." - A wise man

Well hopefully in the next 10 years she will be able to see once again. Our eyes do not see anything. They only let in the light and our brain does the rest. Her brain works just fine and the scientific world is making great advances everyday to help the blind see.

You may not like guns. You may choose not to own one. That is your right.
You might not believe in God. That is your choice.
However, if someone breaks into your home at 3AM the first two things you are going to do are:
1) Call someone with a gun.
2)Pray they get there in time." - A wise man

I met a guy that was climbing into a duck blind,he set his loaded shotgun in first holding on to the barrel,when the butt hit the floor it discharged blowing the left front side of his face off,he could still see out of his right eye,but wore a dust mask to cover the part of his face that was no longer there

the most important thing to always remember.....this would have saved her alot of pain and suffering.... Jeff Cooper's Rules of Gun Safety

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

RULE III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

RULE I: ALL GUNS ARE ALWAYS LOADED

There are no exceptions. Do not pretend that this is true. Some people and organizations take this rule and weaken it;e.g. "Treat all guns as if they were loaded." Unfortunately, the "as if" compromises the directness of the statement by implying that they are unloaded, but we will treat them as though they are loaded. No good! Safety rules must be worded forcefully so that they are never treated lightly or reduced to partial compliance.

All guns are always loaded - period!

This must be your mind-set. If someone hands you a firearm and says, "Don't worry, it's not loaded," you do not dare believe him. You need not be impolite, but check it yourself. Remember, there are no accidents, only negligent acts. Check it. Do not let yourself fall prey to a situation where you might feel compelled to squeal, "I didn't know it was loaded!"

RULE II: NEVER LET THE MUZZLE COVER ANYTHING YOU ARE NOT WILLING TO DESTROY

Conspicuously and continuously violated, especially with pistols, Rule II applies whether you are involved in range practice, daily carry, or examination. If the weapon is assembled and in someone's hands, it is capable of being discharged. A firearm holstered properly, lying on a table, or placed in a scabbard is of no danger to anyone. Only when handled is there a need for concern. This rule applies to fighting as well as to daily handling. If you are not willing to take a human life, do not cover a person with the muzzle. This rule also applies to your own person. Do not allow the muzzle to cover your extremities, e.g. using both hands to reholster the pistol. This practice is unsound, both procedurally and tactically. You may need a free hand for something important. Proper holster design should provide for one-handed holstering, so avoid holsters which collapse after withdrawing the pistol. (Note: It is dangerous to push the muzzle against the inside edge of the holster nearest the body to "open" it since this results in your pointing the pistol at your midsection.) Dry-practice in the home is a worthwhile habit and it will result in more deeply programmed reflexes. Most of the reflexes involved in the Modern Technique do not require that a shot be fired. Particular procedures for dry-firing in the home will be covered later. Let it suffice for now that you do not dry-fire using a "target" that you wish not to see destroyed.

Rule III: KEEP YOUR FINGER OFF THE TRIGGER UNTIL YOUR SIGHTS ARE ON THE TARGET

Rule III is violated most anytime the uneducated person handles a firearm. Whether on TV, in the theaters, or at the range, people seem fascinated with having their finger on the trigger. Never stand or walk around with your finger on the trigger. It is unprofessional, dangerous, and, perhaps most damaging to the psyche, it is klutzy looking. Never fire a shot unless the sights are superimposed on the target and you have made a conscious decision to fire. Firing an unaligned pistol in a fight gains nothing. If you believe that the defensive pistol is only an intimidation tool - not something to be used - carry blanks, or better yet, reevaluate having one around. If you are going to launch a projectile, it had best be directed purposely. Danger abounds if you allow your finger to dawdle inside the trigger guard. As soon as the sights leave the target, the trigger-finger leaves the trigger and straightens alongside the frame. Since the hand normally prefers to work as a unit - as in grasping - separating the function of the trigger-finger from the rest of the hand takes effort. The five-finger grasp is a deeply programmed reflex. Under sufficient stress, and with the finger already placed on the trigger, an unexpected movement, misstep or surprise could result in a negligent discharge. Speed cannot be gained from such a premature placement of the trigger-finger. Bringing the sights to bear on the target, whether from the holster or the Guard Position, takes more time than that required for moving the trigger finger an inch or so to

RULE IV: BE SURE OF YOUR TARGET

Know what it is, what is in line with it, and what is behind it. Never shoot at anything you have not positively identified. Be aware of your surroundings, whether on the range or in a fight. Do not assume anything. Know what you are doing.

You may not like guns. You may choose not to own one. That is your right.
You might not believe in God. That is your choice.
However, if someone breaks into your home at 3AM the first two things you are going to do are:
1) Call someone with a gun.
2)Pray they get there in time." - A wise man

Did ABC also run a front page story of the negligent driver who ran a stop light and killed a family of four?
Nope. Not sensational enough. But happens more often than a girl getting shot in the face, doesn't it.

Negligence is negligence, and cars are more deadly than guns. But, who cares.